The ABC's of Kindergarten

A

Attendance - Please have your child at school everyday. If your child is sick, please keep them home. Send a note within three days of the absence, explaining the reason for the absence. Please include the date, reason, and your signature.

Arrival - 8:00 am The tardy bell rings at 8:15 am. Once your child arrives at school he/she needs to go directly to the gym with other kindergarten students. At 8:00 a.m., the children will be escorted to the gym stage and back to our Kindergarten area.

**Children who arrive late or leave early must be checked in and out at the front office by their parent/guardian. A note or email telling me your child will be leaving school early will be helpful in preparing him/her to be ready to leave.

B

Birthdays - Please contact me and arrange a day that your child would like to celebrate their birthday at school. You may bring in a cookies or healthy snack for the class.

Block - 11:55 AM – 12:40 PM

Breakfast - Your child can eat breakfast at school each day. If they are eating breakfast, please be sure they arrive in plenty of time to finish before the 8:15 bell.

Book Orders - I will be sending home various book order forms from Scholastic. They offer great books at inexpensive prices. These order forms are an easy way to encourage a love of reading in your child. It is not mandatory that you order from these book clubs.

C

Character Lessons -We were named a National School of Character. We are extremely proud of our achievement and we acknowledge it takes effort from everyone - students, parents, teachers and administrators - for development of good character qualities. The counselor runs a school-wide program and will talk to the class about good behavior. You may hear your child talk about being a “bucket-filler” or a “bucket-dipper”. Please know that it is a positive way that all school personnel use to discuss behavior at school.

Computer - The children will be visiting the computer lab on a regular basis. The children will be learning the parts of the computer, basic computer skills, and working with areas of the curriculum on the computer.

Communication - Your child will bring home a daily binder. Please check this every evening. Please clean out the backpack and binder daily and return any necessary forms and/or paperwork. If you need to communicate with me you can do so by placing a note inside the binder or sending me an email. My conference period is Monday-Friday from 12:00-12:35. I can also do phone conferences.

D

Discipline - Every child has a behavior report in his/her binder. Please review this daily, but sign it on Friday. Your child's behavior chart will be marked with a happy face meaning they had good day or a note will be written of their behavior. We will do a credit system in my classroom. They will be given tokens for following my expectations for behavior and academic skills. They will be able to purchase a special activity with their tokens.

Dismissal - A note to the teacher telling the time your child will be leaving school will be helpful in preparing him/her for being ready on time. The office will not check any child out after 2:45, but instead ask that you wait for the regular dismissal times. School is over at 3:15 PM, although we start dismissal procedures about 3:05 to ease the rush of dismissing over 800 children at the same time. Bus and day care riders are taken to the gym and cafeteria to wait with teachers and then be loaded into vehicles. Car riders are taken to the front porch with teachers on duty from every grade level. Drivers should remain in cars waiting in line at the front doors so teachers can load the children in the cars. Unfortunately this does take quite a while, so please be patient. Please do not park in the front lot and leave your car to take your children across the driveway. It is unsafe and unfair. Rainy days require an extra dose of patience. ONLY CHILDREN WHO ARE GETTING INTO A CAR AT THE CURB MAY BE PICKED UP HERE. Children who are walking home will wait in the Kindergarten pod and be picked up by a designated person from the Kindergarten playground area. Kindergarten children are not allowed to walk home alone.

Dress - Please dress your child appropriately not only for school but for the weather. We try to go outside every day, so appropriate clothes for your child is essential. On P.E. days, all children are asked to wear tennis shoes. Girls should wear shorts under their dresses on these days as well. P.E schedule is on your class website. It is helpful to keep a change of clothes in a large Ziploc baggie in their backpack. Please write your child's name in all sweaters, jackets, etc.

F

Field Trips - Our class will have at least one field trip this year that is both fun and educational. We will need parent volunteers for our field trip, so fill out the volunteer form on-line at the www.ccisd.net website ASAP! (It takes a few days for background checks to be completed.)

G

Gifted and Talented - This year, all kindergarten studetns will be evaluated and screened for our Gifted and Talented program in the fall and tested in January. If your child qualifies through the screening for additional testing, you will be notified. Students may only be tested twice during their elementary school years. Any questions regarding the Gifted and Talented program may be directed to Mrs. Neyland at jneyland@ccisd.net.

H

Homework/Home Readers - Your child's homework is to practice sight words and read every day. A home reader program will be implemented in our class after the first few months of school that will allow your child access to books on his/her reading level (permission slips must be signed). Please help your child be responsible with the home readers by taking care of them and returning them daily. We will have other homework assignments in addition to reading. I will post other homework ideas on my class website.

I

Illness - Please keep your child home when he/she is ill. It is school policy, if your child has a temperature, he/she should be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school.

L

Library - We will go to the library once a week. Once we begin to check out books from the library, the books will need to be returned the following week.

Lunch - Each child has been assigned a PIN number in the cafeteria to purchase a hot meal. Please be sure your child memorizes this. If your child will be purchasing lunch, even if only on occasion, it's recommended that you place money in your child's account. It's a great backup in case your child forgets or misplaces his/her lunch. You may send payment in the form of cash or check made out to CCISD Food Services. Also, parents may go online to place additional funds in their child's account via the web at www.parentonline.net or by phone at (866)442-6030. You can set up your child's account to notify you through email when their balance is low. Please place cash or checks in an envelope with your child's name and PIN number on it. Kindergarten does not allow the purchase of snacks/desserts.

M

Money - Please send money in an envelope with your child's first and last name, my name, and the money's purpose. Checks should be made out to the specific company, not to North Pointe Elementary unless indicated.

Medication - If your child needs medication, it must be given through the school nurse. Please send the medication in the bottle that has the prescription clearly labeled on it. Please send directions on the amount of medication to be given and the time. Contact the nurse if you have any questions regarding medication.

N

Newsletter - Our class newsletter is located on our class website. I updated it weekly and will send it to you with new information. I will put important dates, homework, other valuable information on the website.

Name, Address, Phone Number - Please work with your child on learning how to spell his/her first and last name and memorizing his/her address and phone number.

P

Parent Involvement - Please check your child's backpack daily. Important notices may be in there. There will be notes indicating special times parents are invited into the classroom to participate. Clean out backpack daily and keep daily papers at home. Read to your child daily. Review skills learned at school during the week; practice writing sight words and find them in books or the environment. Homework ideas will be posted on my class site.

R

Report Cards - Progress reports are usually sent home every four weeks. Report cards will be sent home every nine weeks. Please sign and return the report card cover and envelope as soon as possible. I will be happy to meet with you at any point in the year if you have any questions or concerns. Just contact me to arrange a conference.

S

Snacks - Because our lunch period occurs so early in the day, we will have snack time each afternoon. Students are responsible to bring their own snack. Snack is not provided for them. Please send a healthy snack (pretzels, sliced apples, goldfish, bars, etc.) with your child. (No yogurts, gogurts, apple sauce, etc.) Unhealthy snacks will be returned home. Juice and sodas are not permitted. Water only.

T

T-Shirt Orders - The entire kindergarten will be placing orders for class t-shirts this year. We will wear them on special days, and at other special school events. More information will be sent home soon.

Toys - Students may NOT bring toys to school unless requested for a special event.

V

Visitors - Visitors are required to sign in at the front office and war a provided visitor's badge while in the building.

W

Wish List - During the school year we will need various items for art projects, math, science lessons, etc. We would greatly appreciate any and all donations. Items that would come in handy will be on the class website.

Z

Zzzzz... - Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest. Setting and keeping a bedtime routine is a wonderful gift you can give your child (and his/her teacher). It will help your child stay prepared to learn each day!

Curriculum

The Kindergarten TEKS are available on-line through CCISD.net. These objectives will be covered in a variety of ways throughout our day. Our goal is to meet every child's needs! I will be working very had to individualize as much as possible to accommodate your child's learning styles and ability level. You are always welcome and encouraged to help your child by extending his/her learning at home or reviewing concepts covered in class. I will update what we are learning on our class website weekly.

The Kindergarten TEKS are available on-line through CCISD.net. These objectives will be covered in a variety of ways throughout our day which is structured as noted on our Daily Class Schedule. Our goal is to meet every child’s needs! To do this, differentiation is a must. I will be working very hard to individualize as much as possible to acommodate your child’s learning styles and ability level. Please be patient and understanding as this can be a daunting task when working with children with a wide range of styles and abilities. You are always welcome and encouraged to help your child by extending his/her learning at home or reviewing concepts covered in class if need be. Below is a summary of the approaches that will be taken in our classroom regarding the curriculum.

Reading: Reading instruction in the classroom will take place in several ways. One way is shared reading. During this time, we will focus on a particular piece of writing as a class. This may be in the form of a Morning Message, a poem, song or big book. We will be looking at grammar, punctuation, genre, story elements, sentence structure, phonics and comprehension skills. We will also meet in reading groups almost daily. Differentiation takes place here. The children will be grouped by ability and need. The material used by each group will differ as will the content of the instruction. Group work consists of various games and activities as well as reading of text specific to each group’s abilities. Stories read in group are usually sent home as “home readers” for further reinforcement. Repeated reading of text occurs to improve automatic recall and fluency. YOUR HELP AND ASSISTANCE IN WORKING WITH YOUR CHILD CONSISTENTLY WILL MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Please help your child be responsible with the home readers by taking care of them and returning them daily.

Math: K-2 classes implement a math curriculum – Developing Number Concepts. This curriculum consists of many hands on, manipulative based activities which are designed to strengthen children’s math foundation. Writing: Kindergarten through 2nd grade will be using the Writer’s Workshop approach to writing that helps children learn to develop their thoughts as a source of writing material.

Science & Social Studies: These curriculum areas are typically integrated through a unit based approach.